


Rumpelstiltskin: A Hacker's Tale

by Liviania



Category: Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms, Rumpelstilzchen | Rumpelstiltskin (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Desi Character, F/M, Female Character of Color, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 00:45:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liviania/pseuds/Liviania
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A modern retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, in which a young woman must make a computer system unhackable.  She's the only one who realizes computers don't work like that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rumpelstiltskin: A Hacker's Tale

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mithrigil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithrigil/gifts).



Aditi, like many girls of her generation, could use a computer and use it well. She merely dabbled as a child, but then her father kept bragging about her. He so rarely praised her otherwise, she felt she had to be as good at computers as he said she was. She couldn’t afford classes or good equipment, but she tried her hardest.

Then her father started bragging that she was a computer prodigy who could make any system unhackable.

 _I’m too old to be a prodigy_ , Aditi thought to herself. _Although I can make any system unhackable. Just don’t use it to access a network._ But she didn’t say such commonsense things to her father, who preferred to listen to his drinking buddies than his daughter. (“Couldn’t she have been a son?” he liked to say to them. “A brilliant son, now there’s something to really brag about.”)

One day, a man heard her father’s description of her talents. This man, the president of King Industries, had seen many movies about hackers (including _Hackers_ ), but had done little actual research into computer security. He hired Aditi on the spot, giving her father a $10,000 advance. By the time Aditi arrived at the company to do whatever she’d been hired to do, her father had spent the money.

The man looked nonplussed when she showed up. Apparently he hadn’t been informed she was only fifteen. “Hi! I’m Aditi!” she introduced herself cheerily, stretching out her hand. He seemed offended by her neon yellow nail polish, but he shook her hand anyway. “So, what can I do for you?”

“I need my company to be unhackable!”

Aditi frowned at him. “You do know that’s not how hacking works, right?”

The man glared in return. “Your father said you could do it. I expect my money back if you fail to perform adequately.”

Aditi sighed. “I can do it.”

“Fine,” the man said before escorting her to a secluded office. “You can stay all night. I will check on your progress in the morning.”

 

Aditi was productive, at first. There were some gaps in the security she could fix. Then she played Solitaire for seven hours. Then she started crying, because there was no way to give the money back and she didn’t want her father arrested for fraud. At least, she thought he was committing fraud. She wasn’t an expert in legal codes. Not that there seemed to be much difference between bullshit and legal codes.

She began to cry. She didn’t feel bad about crying, but freed. She was frustrated and she was scared and she couldn’t do anything about her father.

“Hello, little girl,” said a man.

Aditi jumped and fell out of her rolling chair. Where had he come from? And could he sound like more of a creeper? “Yo,” she replied, pushing herself off the ground. She wasn’t going to sit back down, not as long as he was in the office. She grabbed a pen from the desk, twirling it as if she just wanted something to fiddle with. She’d stab the paunchy bastard if he tried to get fresh.

“I couldn’t help but hear you crying. Do you need some help?”

“Only if you can make a network unhackable,” she said sarcastically.

“Oh, but I can.” He smiled at her, light glinting off his thick glasses.

“Really? What’ll it cost me?”

“I’ll settle for a hand job,” he said, looking her over.

She didn’t shudder. Aditi was used to leers, what with picking her father up from bars all the time. She snorted. “Hope you don’t expect me to pay in advance, like your boss. I’ll pay when I see results.”

“Agreed,” the man said. He sat down at the computer, and Aditi left to find a vending machine. When she returned, he was gone.

 

In the morning, the president made an announcement about King Industries’ new security. It roused the wrath of amateurs, but no one managed to break through. El Rey, Inc. hired Aditi the next week for an advance of $35,000.

 

Once more Aditi didn’t know what to do. She didn’t cry this time. She simply started playing Bejeweled after she finished with Solitaire.

“Bored, sweet?”

This time she managed not to fall out of the chair. Instead, she swiveled to meet the man’s gaze. “Finally come to get paid?”

“Indeed I did. I couldn’t help but notice that you are in trouble again,” he said.

“Care to work your magic again?”

“It will cost a blow job this time,” he said.

“When I see results.”

“Agreed. But first,” he smiled at her as he unzipped.

“Not doing. When you repeat whatever it is you did, people might figure out how you did it. I’m not paying out prematurely.”

He laughed at her. She flinched away from the sound. She would run from the room, but she’d have to run past him. She imagined that he felt like slime and smelled like cigarettes in winter. She wanted to remain as far from him as possible.

“That’s fine, my dear. You’ll pay me in the end.”

 

This time, professionals tested Aditi’s work. They couldn’t break through. Rex & Sons hired her next. Rex offered a $75,000 advance. Not only that, Rex said he wanted to keep such a talent with his company permanently. When she turned eighteen, she would marry one of his sons. _If_ she was successful.

 

Aditi brought her schoolwork with her. She was tired of Solitaire and it wasn’t like she could do anything if the pervert didn’t show up.

Which he did, of course.

“Well, lovey?”

“Your price?” she asked, not looking up from her history homework. She loved algebra and English, but ask her to write about the causes of the War of 1812 and she turned into a blithering idiot. Luckily, she knew how to sound like she knew what she was talking about. Her paper lacked content, but she did mention how awesome Canada was during the war. Her teacher seemed fond of Canada.

“I could do your homework too.”

“No thanks. Your price? Or are you going to do this one for free?”

“I get to fuck you.” He leaned and touched her. Aditi sucked her stomach in, but she could still feel his fingers pressing against her T-shirt. “Your first child will be mine. Your husband will never know, but you will.”

She looked up at him. She didn’t know what she looked like at that moment, but she wanted to seem triumphant. “Guess you have to wait three years then. I think that works nicely for my first two payments as well. Three years is a good amount of time to see if your security measures stand against the assaults various individuals angered by my arrogance have been launching.”

He removed his hand and clenched it into a fist. “Leave, little girl. I’ll see you in three years.”

“Only if you uphold your end of the bargain,” she replied, sweeping out of the room.

 

His work held, though every hacker in the world strove against it at least once. And three years later, Aditi married the youngest Rex son. _At least he’s not a Muslim_ , she thought. _Or a drunk_.

 

When the man approached her, she was in bed. Alone, since her husband had gone on his first business trip since their wedding. She expected him.

He did not expect her to have a gun leveled at his chest.

“You won’t like what happens if you break our bargain,” he said.

“Offer me a reasonable way out, then,” she replied. “Otherwise I shoot your ugly ass and take whatever badness comes. Because I know bad when I see it, which makes Option A pretty unattractive. I’m willing to take my chances with Option B.”

“You have three days to guess my name. Starting tonight.”

“John,” she started.

“No, my screenname.”

“Rumpelstiltskin,” she said.

“Rumpelstiltskin?” He looked dumbfounded. She rather liked the look on his smug face.

She also rolled her eyes. “C’mon, you had to be expecting that.”

She went through several names, but eventually exhausted her creativity.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said.

 

He was back the next day, and seemed piqued that she kept her gun with her.

“I don’t trust you,” she said. “Now let’s get started. Anonymous?” she asked.

“I am not with those assholes! C’mon. I am clearly not affiliated with Anonymous, or 4chan, or any other group that classless.”

“. . . Gnosis?” she asked, nonplussed by his vehemence.

“What? No.”

And thus the questioning continued, but once more she failed.

 

The next day, she decided to do some research. She pulled up the source code for King Industries, Rey, Inc., and Rex & Sons. No hacker could resist taking credit for his or her work. She scrolled through the codes for hours, then found what she wanted. She smiled angrily, and printed an identical excerpt from all three.

 

He came and this time her gun was again leveled at him.

“Pick up the print-outs on the table,” she said. “Read them.”

He did as she said and paled.

“Your screenname is Rumpelstiltskin, you lying piece of shit. You broke our bargain.”

He moved forward more quickly than she could process and hit her across the face. “Cheap bitch. Enjoy your life, you lying whore.”

As he ran from the room, Aditi shot. “I never let my father hit me, why would I let you?” she shouted. She doubted she hit him, but hoped. He deserved it, the perv.

In the hall Rumpelstiltskin unraveled, his body destroyed by the iron in her bullet.

**Author's Note:**

> ". . . anything that might put our modern perceptions a little at odds with Grimm sensibility." - Mithrigil's request
> 
> Clearly, a modern person would just tell Rumpelstiltskin to go fuck himself.
> 
> EDITED: 20/10/2011 (for grammar/typos)
> 
> I also added this story to the Chromatic Yuletide 2010 collection after much thought. I did not add it to the collection originally because Aditi's heritage is not discussed explicitly.


End file.
